The Film:
If there is one company in the world renowned for their animated feature films it's Disney. With so many fantastic hits including The Lion King, Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella constantly selling out in stores before they vanish and get put to rest for several years (a great marketing concept causing panic to buy now at full price), the inevitable cheap to make, direct to video cash-ins have become a staple part of Disney's output. Although it was way back in 1950 when the first Cinderella film was released, 2002 saw a direct to video second film entitled Dreams Come True. However, for the third film, you can forget any continuity of plot as it seems they have decided to just throw out the fact that Anastasia is married, just to get a story.
Cinderella III: A Twist In Time takes the original 1950 film and turns it upside down. Anastasia finds the fairy godmothers' magic wand and decides to give it to her mother, who, mad that Cinderella got to marry the prince, uses the wands powers to go back in time and make sure that the slipper fits one of the ugly sisters. It's up to Cinderella, aswell as the mice Jaq and Gus, to make sure that the prince realises his mistake before it's too late. Whether or not Cinderella manages to break the spell is something you'll have to find out for yourselves though because I won't spoil it for you.
Not the greatest of Disney's direct to video films, Cinderella III: A Twist In Time is pretty disappointing. The voice acting is just plain average and Jennifer Hale who usually voices characters in video games, just hasn't got the talent to voice a movie from a major studio. The story, although only a little over 70 minutes long, struggles to move forward and I became uninterested for most of the middle section and it also suffers from being rather thin, even for kids. I suppose at the end of the day that if you are a girl aged 3-10, you'll probably get a kick out of this unoriginal film, but everyone else will be unimpressed and bored. Perhaps Disney should invest some of their money in new ideas rather than putting out the same tired thing over and over again.
The DVD:
Video:
Disney have provided the film anamorphically at 1.78:1 and whilst the colours are very vivid and leap off the screen, the animation seems very outdated (though do note I'm certainly no expert). It appears to have been made on the smallest of budgets which is a real shame as Disney usually excel at animation. It does however, resemble the original 1950 film pretty well.
Audio:
Disney have give us a couple of options here with English DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks aswell as Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks in both French and Spanish. For reviewings sake, I watched the film with the DTS track which was surprisingly good. The surrounds are well used and dialogue and music levels are clear throughout. The LFE could have done with a little more action on the musical score, but what we have is more than adequate. English closed captions are also included.
Extras:
We start off the extras with a music video from Disney regular Hayden Panettiere who is probably better known at the moment for her role in TV show Heroes. The song is entitled I Still Belive" and is a soppy romance song that fits the film very well. Probably the type of thing Mariah Carey would sing.
Next up is the best extra on the set, an interactive game called Bibbidi Bobbidi Choose. It's sort of an interactive version of a Choose Your Own Adventure book and will keep the kids entertained for a good hour. I must congratulate myself on going through the game without any incorrect answers and I don't care that I am 3-4 times of the target age group.
Next is a section entitled Backstage Disney which includes:
- Exclusive sneak peak of "Disney Princess Enchanted Tales" (2:47)
- "The Making Of Twice Charmed" (4:59)
Whilst I knew what to expect for the first one, I hoped the making of one would be more than an overlong advert for a play on Disney's cruise ship. I was wrong.
We finish off with some sneak peaks, some of which are also start-up trailers:
- "The Little Mermaid III" (0:57)
- ""Mickey's Great Clubhouse Hunt" (0:39)
- "Blu-ray Disc (0:50)
- "Peter Pan" (1:33)
- "Ratatouille" (1:48)
- "Disney Princess Enchanted Tales" (1:10)
- "Tinkerbell" (1:28)
OVERALL:
For 3-10 year old girls and Disney die-hards only.
